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Reportedly, a woman was flying from Seattle to San Francisco. Unexpectedly, the plane was diverted to Sacramento along the way. The flight attendant explained that there would be a delay, and if the passengers wanted to get off the aircraft the plane would re-board in 50 minutes. Everybody got off the plane except one lady who was blind. A man had noticed her as he walked by and could tell the lady was blind because her guide dog lay quietly underneath the seats in front of her throughout the entire flight. He could also tell she had flown this very flight before because the pilot approached her, and calling her by name, said, "Kathy, we are in Sacramento for almost an hour. Would you like to get off and stretch your legs?" The blind lady said, "No thanks, but maybe Buddy would like to stretch his legs." So the pilot took the dog off the plane and since it was very sunny, he put on his sunglasses… As he came down the steps and started walking towards the gate area all the people standing at the gate area came to a complete stand still when they looked up and saw the pilot walk off the plane with a guide dog for the blind!

That story was shared by a friend and supposedly it is a true story. But even if it is not true the point is still true: things are not always as they appear and it is good to find out the whole story. Lives, relationships and reputations can be damaged easily because someone jumps to the wrong conclusion before checking the facts.

In the Bible many folks thought John the Baptist was the chosen one, the Messiah. But John didn’t want people to jump to the wrong conclusion about him. Instead John quickly told them he wasn’t and then pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.” John’s job was to share the gospel which means “good news” and that good news centered around Jesus who came into the world to save people from all their sins including the sin of gossip.

Unfortunately some folks just love talking about others. For example Betty joined her card playing group late and when asked why she was late, she told them, “Well I was at the beauty salon and I heard this about Alice.” Betty went on and on, and then finally stopped and said, “Let’s play cards”. But the other ladies said, “No please tell us more.” At that point Betty declared, “Oh, I already told you more than I ever heard.”

Like Betty many folks are quick to share “interesting news about others… but instead of spreading rumors we are challenged to double check the truth of what is being said, and if one can’t verify it, and then work to stop the rumor from spreading. And if the story is true, then what should one do? Hopefully our first thought would be to ask ourselves what good does it do to spread something that hurts the reputations, lives and relationships of someone else. Don’t simply jump to the false conclusions that anything is good to share.